JAMMU, SEPTEMBER 5: The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Electoral Officer, Hirdesh Kumar, has called for an all-party meeting which is scheduled to take place on Monday at 4 pm for the summary revision of electoral rolls.
The meeting comes in the wake of ongoing controversy over the CEO’s remarks that J&K will get additional 20-25 lakh voters including outsiders after special summary revision of voters.
Sending invitation to all the major political parties, the CEO has communicated that the meeting has been convened over special summery revision of electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir. During the meeting he may clear apprehensions and misgivings arising out of his earlier press conference wherein he had said that nearly 25 lakh new voters are likely to be added to the electoral rolls during the ongoing exercise.
“This revision of electoral rolls will cover existing residents of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the increase in numbers will be of the voters who have attained the age of 18 years as of October 1 or earlier,” the CEO had added.
As his statement had raked up a controversy with mainstream opposition political parties slamming inclusion of outsiders as voters into the electoral rolls, the J&K administration had clarified that the summery revision of electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir was taking place after three years and no outsiders were being added to the electoral rolls, but only those who became 18 years in 2019 and could not be registered as voters.
Earlier, the Election Commission announced that the people who were not voters in the Assembly after the abrogation of Article 370 from the region can now be named on the voter’s list.
According to an official, the person needs not to be a “permanent resident” of the Union Territory for the same.